Manchester United could sign Angel di Maria, Arturo Vidal, Daley Blind, Mehdi
Benatia and Sami Khedira and it would still not be how it was meant to be

Whatever happens between now and the transfer window closing on Sept 1 this is not the way it was meant to be at Manchester United. The strategy has failed.

United could bring in Angel Di Maria, Arturo Vidal, Daley Blind or Mehdi Benatia. They could bid for Sami Khedira. And it would still not be how it was meant to be.

The club has signed Luke Shaw, Ander Herrera and - this week - Marcos Rojo (at a hefty cost of £72m) but have failed having made it clear in discussions with agents, clubs and in private briefings at the end of last season that they would be acting quickly and emphatically.

The budget? There was no set budget but a figure of £200m was readily available.

The successor to David Moyes would be making "quick decisions", according to senior sources at the club. There would be no delay. "Quick decisions as in 'right, here are five players lined up for this position, which one do you want?'" one source explained.

That was the message in May. "The target is to win it," was the other message. It being the Premier League title. Not next season or the season after but this campaign. "And when you have that target you have to do everything you can. And players - we have to invest in players."

United have not done that. Moyes was convinced he could sign Toni Kroos from Bayern Munich but the German international joined Real Madrid. He felt he could hijack Manchester City’s move for midfielder Fernando. There were discussions held over bringing back Paul Pogba from Juventus - although United, probably rightly, balked at the £60m fee that was being quoted.

Remember those pictures of Moyes on scouting trips to Germany last season? There was a confidence, maybe mis-placed, that he would be re-shaping the team with a new central midfield, left-back and central defender. Then it all went very quiet, partly of course because of the change of manager, but United were still determined to act quickly.

The deals for Shaw and Herrera were already in train but the hiatus since then points to a failure. Maybe United will pull off some spectacular deals in the next 10 days. But even if they do, they cannot dress it up as a well-thought out strategy. Not this time around.

Injured United are top of one table

There is one table that Manchester United sit on top of right now – the club has the highest number of injuries in the Premier League. United have eight players out, followed by Arsenal (despite the appointment of Shad Forsythe, who was fitness coach with the German national team), Newcastle United with seven and Liverpool six.

The figures are compiled by the website physioroom.com and make grim reading for United. Undoubtedly manager Louis van Gaal has pushed his squad hard, with double sessions and a lot of physical work racking up the injuries, as the Dutchman himself has conceded. One of the most surprising - and perhaps avoidable - is the hamstring injury suffered by Luke Shaw, who was packed off to train on his own back at United's training ground at Carrington, by Van Gaal, after the manager publically stated the left-back was not fit enough.

Van Gaal is entitled to his approach but was sending a new £27m signing, an 18-year-old at that, back to train on his own, albeit under supervision from medical staff, the right plan? It always risked the possibility of Shaw trying to do too much and, maybe, that was exactly what happened.

Chelsea's tough call

Chelsea have a hard decision to make. They have to lose one of their foreign players before the transfer window closes to comply with the requirements of the Premier League and Uefa when it comes to the composition of a club's squad.

Chelsea have one too many foreigners over the age of 21 right now and cannot name more than 17 non-home grown players in a maximum 25-man squad. Chelsea have 18 and one must be sold or loaned.

But who can go? Logic dictates, looking at the balance of the Chelsea squad, that it is certainly one of their three foreign goalkeepers.

And the most obvious one is Petr Cech, even if manager Jose Mourinho is publically - and privately - adamant that he wants the 32-year-old to stay, regardless of losing his place to Thibaut Courtois.

Chelsea have eight defenders - so would not want to lose one - and, nevertheless, need some of their younger 'Under-21' players to fulfil the criteria for the Premier League. They only have three strikers and, although it is entirely possible that Fernando Torres will be sold, it is just as likely that his replacement will be a foreign striker.

That leaves the midfield where Chelsea have 10 players. It could therefore, logic dictates, be one of Oscar, Eden Hazard, John Obi Mikel, Andre Schurrle, Ramires, Mohamed Salah, Nemanja Matic, Marco van Ginkel or Willian who will have to go before the window closes. That is some decision for Mourinho to make.

Of that group Oscar, Mikel and Van Ginkel would appear the most likely candidates. But surely it makes more sense for one of his goalkeepers to go if the right deal can be struck?

There are only three 'home-grown players': John Terry, Gary Cahill and Cesc Fabregas (from his time at Arsenal), while goalkeeper Jamal Blackman and defenders Kurt Zouma, Nathan Ake and Andreas Christensen all qualify for the Premier League squad as U21s.

The home-grown rules are curious. For example, last season at Chelsea, Patrick van Aanholt, born in S'Hertogenbosch, Holland, who joined the Blues in 2009, still qualified as a home-grown player while Ryan Bertrand, born in London, who joined Chelsea in 2005 from Gillingham, did not. The problem for Bertrand is that he had been sent on loan too often. Bertrand, of course, is back on loan. At Southampton.

Empty Wembley

Next Thursday, Roy Hodgson names his squad for England's friendly against Norway and the tricky Euro 2016 qualifier away to Switzerland. The England manager has been given a relatively easy ride following his team's shocking early exit from the World Cup but he can certainly expect to be quizzed extensively at the squad announcement.

Even the expected confirmation of Wayne Rooney as England captain - a decision made easier for Hodgson after the striker was also named as Manchester United's captain - will not deflect from the demands for a detailed post-mortem of the failure.

The Football Association are also braced for the sight of a less than half-full Wembley when England face Norway on Sept 3. It is hardly the most glamorous of fixtures but has to be fulfilled as part of the reciprocal agreement that saw England play Norway in Oslo in the run-up to Euro 2012.

How low will the attendance be? So far an estimated 15,000 tickets have been sold, with the FA expecting the attendance to not climb above 40,000, although they are unsure of the intentions of the 17,000 Club England members. Available tickets start from £10 for children and £20 for adults. But the FA are not holding their breath.

The record low for attendances at Wembley, since it was re-opened in 2007, is the 48,876 who watched the friendly against Sweden in November 2011. England will struggle to get close to that.